11 Steps in Writing a Publishable Scientific Research Paper

A rewarding yet difficult aspect of graduate work is writing that first scientific research paper to be published in a peer reviewed journal. The reward comes from knowing that you have the opportunity to tell a story (at least in part) relevant to your thesis or dissertation hypothesis. How to actually develop the paper and put your story into words, tables, and figures can be the difficult part.

It is important to remember that the peer reviewed scientific research paper may not be in the same format as your thesis or dissertation chapter. Your goal should be to get the scientific research paper published and then you can concern yourself with the necessary thesis editing and formatting to prepare this work for inclusion into your graduate thesis.

My first scientific paper draft consumed many hours with little or no success. I would write a few sentences, then edit, wordsmith, and check grammar so that every word was perfect. I lacked any idea of how to go about presenting my scientific data. Sure, I was experienced with writing essays and graduate research papers for class, but this was different. Now with over 30 peer reviewed papers published, I have a system that makes this process easier. Within three days of gathering the final pieces of data, I can have a draft document into the hands of my colleagues and this is how I succeed.Know the preferred presentation style of your colleagues.

1. Know the preferred presentation style of your colleagues.

Take the time to read a few papers written by your major advisor and collaborators. Understand what styles and journals they most often choose and how they go about laying out the data and the story. If your work developed from a grant proposal, review that document and think about the hypothesis. In the beginning, your advisor and collaborators are going to use what is most familiar to them and you will have to prove yourself competent in writing peer reviewed scientific papers before you can develop your own style. Have the relevant literature easily accessible as you write.

2. Collect and present your data.

Often we want to start with the introduction. That is the wrong approach. Start with compiling your data and putting it all into tables, charts, and figures. Have your data in nicely formatted and easy to review “pictures.”

3. Write the Results section.Once your data is presented nicely, write the results associated with each figure, table, or chart. Do not just reiterate what is presented, but help the reader understand the relevance and connectedness of the data. This is where you succeed in walking the reader through your data, just as you would tell a story.

4. Write the Materials and Methods.
Once you have the data presented in the Results, it is time to write the Materials and Methods. Describe how you performed the experiments. Refer to previous literature and be succinct. In your thesis or dissertation writing, you can add extra details.

5. Draft five or ten key points about your work.
Put into words the key ideas you are hoping to present with this paper. These do not need to be lengthy paragraphs but rather statements that summarize the crucial elements of your work.

6. Share the paper with your collaborators.

Now is the time to have collaborators, your advisor, or knowledgeable friends review this work to see if everyone agrees on the selected data and the key points. Ask for quick feedback and select the scientific journal you will submit your work to for publication.

7. Revise based on collaborator suggestions.

With collaborator suggestions, you can then perform some research paper editing. Edit the document to address the issues or ideas brought up by your collaborators. With your target journal in mind, this is the time to go back and make sure your tables, figures, and charts are in the proper format as specified by the journal.

8. Write your Discussion.
After you have edited the Results and Materials and Methods sections based on collaborator input, write your Discussion. You can use the five or 10 points you developed earlier as the basis for the discussion.

11. To Be Certain of its Excellence, Hire an Editing Service for a Final Check.

Once all the above is completed, you must now make sure all the collaborators and your advisor read and comment. Edit and make necessary changes as suggested by the rest of the team and then write the abstract. If you’re not 100% confident in your paper’s excellence, employ a professional editing service staffed by PhDs in your discipline to go through it one more time for you. Edit911 has edited over 1200 scientific papers for publication.

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